4. HP and the Fake Philosopher's Stone

After a few days my Hogwarts's acceptance letter came. I tried to keep it as close to the canon as possible. I also found that it has a charm whether to check whether it was opened or not and the message about acceptance was never needed if you have not chosen any other school so, it was an extra effort to check my knowledge of Wizarding World. I tried to stick to the canon I had read in the books and have Vernon keep destroying all the letters that came. When finally, the house was filled with letters, I told them we will be going to a hotel in London where again thousands of letters after which we went to the shack in the middle of the ocean.

And as I expected, Hagrid came there to bring me my letter and birthday cake along with it. I was slightly disappointed when Dudley didn't try to eat the cake and didn't get the tail he was never born with. Then the next morning, we went to the Diagon Alley, where Hagrid helped me in 'shopping', more like following only the list and don't let me have much interaction with anyone but I don't think it was Hagrid's intention. Just by spending few hours with him anyone can tell you this big guy don't even have a single malicious bone in him unless you harm him or his first. But that was not a problem for me as I already planned to come again and get whatever else was needed.

And I also managed to surprise Ollivander by not getting scared and finally got my wand, strangely it was still the classic Holly and Phoenix feather wand. 

Overall, it was a nice wand with a higher compatibility than my grandfather's wand. I thought that I would get some other due to my completely different personality but that was not the case. I think the horcrux played more of a role than I thought it would.

A few days later I came to complete the shopping like getting a better trunk, it was a three compartment multi compartment trunk with the first compartment looking like a normal one and other having to be opened by special locks, some additional books and potion ingredients etc. Another thing I discovered during this trip is that while the Wizarding World may be stuck in Middle Ages, its fashion industry, especially women's fashion, is far ahead of even muggle world as muggle born brought the fashion to wizarding world initially which was very liked and there are many charms to help with the more risqué and sexy clothing, like spells that stops dresses from riding up, or to make sure wind doesn't give someone a sneak peek etc.

Even the Hogwarts uniform is shirt and pant, with a tie and belt that takes the coat of arms of the house you are sorted into and a robe over them that also gets the coat of arms. But the surprising part was the girls' uniform, which consisted of a shirt, short skirt that reaches till mid-thigh and could be shorter if wanted and a corset.

The first year started as expected but I didn't wait for Weasley to show me the way. I knew that someone could be watching me, so I arrived an hour early and stayed near the pillar and when one of the muggles born, easily recognisable by their trunk, passed through the gate I followed them without acting suspicious. This will be a good excuse if someone asked me about this. As expected, Ron came looking for me while acting like he can't find an empty compartment at the last minute. Soon after that, I met the famous or rather infamous, depends on who you ask, Weasley twins. The ride was uneventful but annoying due to Ron, the pig, if you remove the arrival of Hermione and Draco and his goons.

From there we took a boat ride to the castle and then were sorted. During the sorting I also found that Draco has a twin sister here, Isabella Malfoy who was also sorted into Slytherin. Thankfully, the hat was not able to look into my previous lives and declared that I was fit for all houses other than Hufflepuff as I am only loyal to mine and no one else. I chose Gryffindor because I already knew what to expect their but not in any other House. I was slightly surprised when I found that Hogwarts don't have same teachers teaching all years, seriously that would have been hectic with atleast 3 classes a week for every year in two slots of two houses at a time. That means a teacher of core subject has to take 42 classes, check their assignments, take rounds at night and prepare exams. If a class is an hour long that means a teacher spends more than 8 hours on weekdays just teaching, how they would have done all the other things without extra teachers, I don't know. Now they have three teachers for core subjects and two for electives taken in third year. For core subjects, one teacher takes first three years, another OWL years and the third teacher NEWT years. Same for electives with a first teacher taking third to fifth year and second teacher taking NEWT years. It is not fixed which teacher takes which year and rotates every year.

The rest of the year went as in canon with, I caught Neville's Remembrall, got selected in Quidditch team, also found that all Quidditch teams also have cheerleaders. I also saved Hermione from the troll on Halloween but this time it was only me as I didn't attend the feast. Over the years I have realised that I have not taken over the body but actually merged with original Harry's soul, so I feel his grief on this day when James and Lily Potter passed away. So, I didn't feel like going to a feast but was ready for the troll. So, I kept wandering in the second-floor corridor and immediately knew when the troll arrived due to his smell but I don't know if it was fate or what but by the time I reached his location he was already inside the girls washroom and destroying sinks and was about to pulverize Hermione, but I was able to take him down as the idea of using his own club is actually rather ingenious and effective. As for why I was not near the washroom from the start, I didn't want to look like a creep by continuously wandering around girl's washroom, thank you very much.

This gave me a life debt with her when she acknowledged I saved her life and was further acknowledged by Magic by a flash of light. It doesn't mean she became a slave of mine. It just means she owes me a very big favor which can only be paid by saving my life or when I acknowledge she has paid it. I cannot ask her to pay it by going against her moral code like I can't ask her to murder someone but if she thinks that I am innocent or don't deserve punishment I can ask her to take the blame. So, nothing too extraordinary but it atleast assured me that if I removed her faith in authority figures who will try to show that they have my best interest in their hearts, I can be assured of her full loyalty.

After this the whole game of playing James Bond began when we went to meet Hagrid found the newspaper talking about the robbery, got the reference of Flamel and all that that led us to going to the trapdoor in the third-floor corridor guarded by Fluffy and led to my encounter with Quirrelmort. But the encounter drained my magical reserves which made me fall unconscious. Then Dumbledore met me in the hospital wing and gave me the same grandfatherly speech about how I need to stay with Dursleys, when I told him I don't want to stay with them, how my mother's sacrifice protects me. While in truth, it was a ritual performed by both of my parents which needed both of their sacrifice, but it only had to do with me and had nothing to do with my mother's blood or wards, it is just a shield around me that would not let Voldemort, or his magic touch me and would destroy him instead.

The year soon ended, Dumbledore gave us House Points for saving the stone but didn't tell anyone the reason and made it seem like a pure case of favouritism. No one questioned this because it broke the Slytherin streak of winning the House cup, which they also won till now only through Snape's bias, and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were just happy with someone else winning the cup. After the last feast we boarded the express and went back home.